


I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Clause

by Suaine



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, christmas stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 11:28:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suaine/pseuds/Suaine
Summary: This Christmas Val comes down to celebrate with Amanda and their Dads.





	I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Clause

**Author's Note:**

  * For [halfeatenmoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfeatenmoon/gifts).



 

Val wore the sweater Amanda had made her last time she came down from New York. Amanda couldn’t take her eyes off the chartreuse monstrosity, not just because there was no way that Val could possibly look that radiant in it, but because she was actually wearing something Amanda had made. By herself.

It wasn’t a crush, exactly. Just appreciation of a truly beautiful spirit, inside and out.

Dad and Robert had gone to get holiday groceries so they’d left the two girls alone to look for Christmas decorations. Robert had vaguely pointed at the basement and mumbled something about multi-colored lights and tinsel. The magic words.

Amanda had bounded down the stairs to a treasure trove of boxed up memories. None of this stuff was her business, but damn if she wasn’t going to take the invitation. Val seemed happy to watch from the sidelines, arms crossed and lips curved into a sardonic smile. Everything about the scene felt homey and stupid and so very, very dangerous. Amanda sure could get used to this.

Not that her father was any help. He insisted that Robert and him were strictly friends, that Robert needed a shoulder to lean on more than a hand to hold, which was super sweet and supportive but also bullshit.

“Ah! Look at this!” Amanda held up the photo album of Val, toddler of doom. “Amazing!”

Val grabbed for it halfheartedly as Amanda held it up higher. “That’s not for your eyes, kiddo.”

“Oh, but you were so cute!”

Amanda darted through the room until she misjudged and barreled into a stack of well-worn boxes. They crashed to the floor and out of them spilled, well.

“What in the world?!” Amanda’s eyes widened and she started laughing.

Val crouched down and picked up the reindeer nanny cam. “Wow. I haven’t seen this stuff in ages.”

Amanda grinned. “I know what Robert’s monster hunting gear looks like, but this… it looks like he got it at a dumping sale from Santa’s workshop.”

“Aww, man. I’d almost forgotten about this thing.” She held the cute reindeer up to Amanda’s nose. A glinting camera lens was just visible in one of its eyes. “Dad and I used to try and catch Santa Clause. He’d help me set it up and then we’d review the footage in the morning, but we could never get a clear picture. It was so frustrating!”

“Obviously your Dad was Santa and knew exactly where the camera was.”

Val rolled her eyes. “I mean, sure.”

Amanda grinned. “How long did you believe he was real?”

+

They hid the camera in a tornado of decorations and glitter, laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Decorating for Christmas hadn’t been this fun since before the move, before.

Amanda’s face hurt and her fingers were a little numb from the cold when they went outside to give the roof the full Christmas demon treatment. There were lights everywhere and Amanda was spending time with one of her favorite people in the world. It was, almost, better than Christmas.

Dinner that night was as lighthearted as anything could be with Robert at the table - he just carried a slight aura of gloom with him wherever he went. Amanda made him laugh twice, she counted that as a win.

Of course, logically Amanda knew that there wasn’t a Santa and that Val didn’t really believe in him any more than she did. But the game was infectious. She knew Dad had gotten a little bit into monster hunting lately, just from hearing Robert talk about it so much. All Amanda wanted was to feel like a part of this crazy family.

Val woke her up at 6am on Christmas morning in her pajamas, a Santa hat lounging jauntily on her perfect hair. “Hey, wake up sleepy head. Yo, Amanda! Manda Panda! Come on!” Amanda snuffled at her until Val decided to pull out the big guns - or rather, pull off.

Amanda grabbed for the covers as they were ripped from her. “Nooo! You fiend! I need those!”

Val leaned close to her, suddenly the air felt hot and humid, or maybe that was just how it felt when the sun entered your orbit. “We are going to watch the feed from last night. At last, Santa will be revealed!”

+

They sat in the basement, surrounded by eggnog and cookies, bright Christmas sweaters pulled haphazardly over their pajamas. “You ready?” Val asked as she hooked her phone up to the old TV. Amanda nodded.

The images were grainy, warm color spilling from the screen. The fire place had been lit, probably Dad who needed to prove that he could make a fire, in case Brian came calling. Dad’s weird one-up-manship with the dude was disturbing to everyone except the two of them, but at least they had stopped using their daughters as proxy.

“Is that my Dad? Oh, it is! Look, he has milk and cookies.”

Amanda laughed. “Primo Santa bait.”

Val pointed. “Oh my god, is he wearing bunny slippers?” He was. Pink, fluffy bunny slippers. They had little Santa hats on.

Robert sat down and started reading a book, no, an enormous leather bound tome. He looked like a fire-side storyteller. Val fast-forwarded through the next twenty minutes of this until she caught a shadow of movement and rewound to its first appearance. There was something moving at the edge of the screen, just outside of the visible angle.

“Dammit, he’s good.”

Amanda stared in awe. “Oh! Is he… is that… Val, what is happening?”

They continued to watch as Santa darted around. There was no clear shot of him, but they could see his fur-trimmed red coat, the hat, a glimpse of his white beard. He slipped through the room like a ninja and left things in all the stockings, hiding bigger gifts around the place, and never showing his face. He did it so silently that Robert, who had fallen asleep minutes after cracking the book, never even stirred.

And then something really weird happened. Santa stilled, standing directly between Robert and the camera. He was close enough that his body language was obvious. Shoulders drawn, deep breaths, a little fear coupled with exhilaration.

He shook his head, clenched his fists and walked toward Robert, who was still obscured. Val grabbed Amanda’s hand. “Oh my god, what… what is he doing?”

Amanda couldn’t tear her eyes away. It was like a train wreck. “You know all those monster movies where the monster sometimes hides as a nice creature? Like first you think it’s a nice leprechaun and then it opens its mouth and bites your face off! What if it’s like that?! Oh god, did we go through the den? WAS THERE BLOOD?!”

Val tightened her grip. “No, I… no. Dad’s fine, I’m sure. There wasn’t any blood!”

On screen, Santa had reached Robert and holy shit, was he taking off the beard?! Amanda leaned closer but the picture didn’t become any less grainy. “What the hell is he doing?”

Santa loomed over Robert, bending at the hip to… to…

“Turn that off,” Val said, voice cold as ice. Amanda tried but fumbled the remote and then it just kept going, but not exactly where she thought it would. Santa’s head didn’t obscure Robert’s face like it would with a kiss, at least a kiss on the mouth. It looked so gentle, so tender. A kiss, yes, but on the forehead, feather-soft and heartbreakingly sweet. Then Santa took the book, marked the page and placed it on the side table. Amanda had no idea where Santa had gotten the blanket, but he was covering Robert with it as if he was the most precious thing in the world.

“Oh no,” Amanda said, her eyes filling with tears.

Val looked shell-shocked. “We shouldn’t have seen that. I mean, really not. Dad is not… he’s not good with intimacy and this. If he knew.”

Amanda nodded. “Delete it, delete the app. We’ll never speak of this. It won’t leave this room.”

Val sighed. “You know I know who that is, right?”

“It’s Santa,” Amanda said. “Okay, we never have to talk about it. Just Santa.”

Val gave her a grim smile. “Your Dad, he did a lot for us. You know, I don’t think I would even be here without him. But he’s clearly still in love with my Dad and that’s not going to end well for any of us.”

“We don’t talk about that,” Amanda said. “He tries his best. And he’d never do anything until Robert was ready.”

“Didn’t look like that, did it?”

Amanda shook her head, no. It certainly didn’t look like that.

+

Christmas cheer picked up again at breakfast, when Robert told them about his monster book of monsters that Lucien had given him as an early Christmas present. The whole neighborhood was having a New Year’s party later in the week and Robert wondered if he should get a gift in return.

Amanda’s dad smiled. “Sometimes people just do nice things because they want to, it doesn’t have to be a transaction.”

Robert huffed. “I know that.” Then he leaned over and gave her Dad a kiss on the cheek. “But not everyone is as nice as you.”

Amanda dropped her knife. The clatter rang in her ears, but she could still hear her heart beat a mile a minute. “What?” She looked to her Dad, who was blushing beet red. “Dad! What?! When? HOW?”

Val shook her head. She seemed as confused as Amanda.

Dad rubbed the back of his neck and reached for Robert’s hand. “We didn’t want to tell anyone yet. But someone clearly thought it was overdue.” He glanced at Robert.

Robert shrugged. “It wasn’t me, actually. It was Mr. Sparklehorn.”

Val snorted laughter. “That’s the reindeer. I named him Mr. Sparklehorn when I was five. But also, Dad, for fuck’s sake if you knew about the camera, why did you… you know.”

Robert looked at Amanda’s Dad and his expression softened. “As a monster hunter, you know there’s one fundamental truth.” He took a deep breath and faced Amanda.

“Pics or it didn’t happen.”


End file.
